Mainers challenge themselves to reading goals during the pandemic
A 9-year-old who has read some 250 books and a book club that tackled War and Peace are among those filling their downtime with reading.
Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Nine-year-old Lucy Harkness used to do have days filled with school, gymnastics, soccer or some other extra-curricular activity.
But since the pandemic began, the Portland fourth-grader’s life – not to mention her family’s home – has become filled with books. Her mother, who works at the Portland Public Library, brings home a shopping bag full of them every few weeks. Her family estimates Lucy’s read 250 books in the past year, ranging from graphic novels and young adult books to classics like “Little Women.”
Mainers challenge themselves to reading goals during the pandemic
A 9-year-old who has read some 250 books and a book club that tackled War and Peace are among those filling their downtime with reading.
Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Nine-year-old Lucy Harkness used to do have days filled with school, gymnastics, soccer or some other extra-curricular activity.
But since the pandemic began, the Portland fourth-grader’s life – not to mention her family’s home – has become filled with books. Her mother, who works at the Portland Public Library, brings home a shopping bag full of them every few weeks. Her family estimates Lucy’s read 250 books in the past year, ranging from graphic novels and young adult books to classics like “Little Women.”
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
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Back in June 2020, I started a Quarantine Book Club, which is just a photo album on my Facebook of the covers of books that I have read. In the past 15 years or so I had gotten away from actually reading the written word and eased into audiobooks.
I still love listening to audiobooks, but reading an actual book you hold in your hands is somehow different. It has become one of my primary ways to de-stress during the pandemic.
When Currier House Resident Tutor Molly C. Ryan ’14 Zoomed with students for her Quarantine Book Club, she was excited to see a copy of Children of Blood and Bone a novel written by author and former Currierite Tomi J. Adeyemi ’15 sitting on the students’ bookshelves.
In September, Ryan started the Currier Quarantine Book Club as a way to bond with students during the virtual fall semester. Through Porter Square Books, Ryan has shipped copies of the novel to around 30 students to places as far as Australia and Italy.
“They are now someone that I ll get to see and talk to and have this connection with because we ve read the same book,” Ryan said.